Boots has revealed the reason for long queues outside its remaining Wellington store.

After being contacted about the long waits, which left some customers queueing for up to and in excess of an hour, the pharmacy firm blamed the recent closure of its Mantle Street store.

A spokesperson for Boots told the Wellington Weekly: “There have been higher than usual wait times for prescriptions at our Wellington High Street store while we onboard new patients from the medical centre.

Our team members have been working hard to minimise disruption for customers and we would like to assure patients that the current high wait times are temporary and will be back to normal soon. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and would like to thank people for bearing with us and being kind to our team members at this time."

It comes after the High Street store manager issued an apology to customers who had to endure long waits and in some cases make repeated visits in order to collect their prescriptions.

This week queues continued to form on the street as customers vied to get in-store early and beat the wait - on Tuesday, February 20, as many as nine customers were seen waiting for the pharmacy to open its doors.